Where’s my Slice of heaven? Perfect Place?

In my list, a recurring theme was nature. It’s relaxing, inspiring, amazing, & the best design model there is! Everywhere I look in the woods is life & efficient design – there is no waste in nature.

There are also no re-runs in nature: I had a top floor apartment for years, & I’d sit on the balcony every evening after work & watch the sky. Even if there were no clouds, there were jet contrails, birds & bugs.

The cool things about nature is that it is everywhere, whether I’m in Amsterdam, at the coast or home in Raleigh. We have hawks & snakes & raccoons & all kinds of spiders in town, too.

A Very Close Second Place

My happy place is making something. Anything:

• a meal,
• a travel itinerary,
• a design concept,
• a Halloween costume,
• a piece of furniture.

Behold, yours truly (in a way too big apron) holding the frame for our modern farm table while my partner in crime welds.

And about a billion other places

• watching football with a cat in my lap,
• chocolate,
• live music,
• parades
• well worn pubs with wood tables, low ceilings, and regulars

I am a diamond: I have many facets.  :D For more interesting posts on this round of BlogOff, check out the Let’s BlogOff site:

*Comments weren’t purposely disabled on this post. My laptop is obviously possessed. If you’d like to comment, you may do so at the reposted version here.*

The Edges Matter. A lot.

I do a lot of thinking & looking as a designer, & have always appreciated things that lurk on the fringes of the spotlight. Whatever is loudest or most prominent not only might not be the best, but also might not be the true & accurate source. Or even the most interesting.

Those black things in the picture aren’t the camels. They’re their shadows. The camels are the thin, camouflaged shapes at the base of each shadow.  But the shadows draw the eye first. Or at least for first time viewers, they do.

Designers Need the Fringe.

If all is talked about is how much they want granite, we don’t focus on enduring design aspects that matter:

• locations of highly used appliances
• operational clearances of cabinet components
• where the dog, who is a regular in the kitchen, gets to have a hang out spot
• what is it *about* the granite that they like, & how likely is it that another cheaper/more durable/greener material couldn’t serve as well or better in its place?

The seeds of all good design solutions lie in the information that exists on the periphery; information that has to be uncovered to be put to use.

There is no other way to uncover that information without discussion & questioning & communicating, in short, LOOKING.  That, in large part, is what design *is*. That’s what you pay for when you hire a designer: their ability & skills at looking.

Caveat: To get the most out of your designer, you must also be willing to look, & share information, no matter how irrelevant it may seem. I welcome the client who is eager to explore their puzzle with me – that is the best part of design!

Opportunity Doesn’t Knock.

It taps you on the shoulder. Are you looking?

Yes, please!

This week we discovered Fireclay Tile out of San Jose, CA.

They make ginromous format tiles that would seriously rock a backsplash or accent wall very nicely.

Especially in a space with high ceilings.

Less grout to clean, less time to install. But, less forgiving of irregularities in the installation surface.

If you want perfection, the wall or floor has to be perfect before the tile goes on.

Otherwise, let bumps be bumps. Not necessarily always a bad thing. Character is highly underrated these days!

Tread lightly.

Fireclay’s products are hand made & finished. They also strive for closed system manufacturing. They:

• use both post consumer and post industrial waste,
• process internally produced scrap materials back into their clay bodies, and
• actively seek out tile markets that don’t already meet their product standards

Can’t wait for the samples to get here!

[via K+BB & Kelly Morisseau]